CHAPTER 8 — The Bloodline Nobody Was Meant to Discover
The first missile struck the cabin.
The explosion hurled everyone to the ground.
Flames raced across the wooden walls.
Vincent grabbed Emily's hand.
"Run!"
They sprinted through the burning forest as bullets shredded the trees behind them.
Dante covered their escape, firing with calm precision.
One by one...
His magazines emptied.
After nearly an hour...
The survivors reached an abandoned railway station hidden beneath the mountains.
Isabella unlocked a steel vault buried behind a collapsed platform.
Inside waited something none of them expected.
Not gold.
Not weapons.
A laboratory.
Rows of refrigerated DNA samples.
Thousands of sealed files.
Photographs dating back almost fifty years.
Emily whispered,
"What is this place?"
Isabella answered,
"The real archive."
"Project Phoenix never ended."
"It evolved."
She walked to a reinforced vault.
Using her fingerprint and retinal scan, she opened it.
Inside rested a single black folder.
Stamped in red letters:
ABSOLUTE CLASSIFICATION
She handed it to Emily.
"This belongs to you."
Emily slowly opened the folder.
The first page displayed her DNA profile.
The second page displayed Vincent's.
She frowned.
"Why is his file here?"
Isabella remained silent.
Emily turned to the final page.
Her hands began to shake.
Across the center of the report were the words:
GENETIC MATCH CONFIRMED
Probability:
99.9998%
Emily stared at Isabella.
"What does this mean?"
The older woman closed her eyes.
"It means..."
"You and Vincent were never strangers."
Vincent stepped forward.
"What are you talking about?"
Isabella took a deep breath.
"Project Phoenix didn't only exchange children."
"It erased bloodlines."
"It created new identities."
She looked directly at Vincent.
"The man who raised you wasn't your father."
"And the people who raised Emily weren't her parents."
Emily's voice trembled.
"So... who are we?"
Isabella whispered the words she had feared for decades.
"You are descendants of the same founding bloodline."
"The original family that built everything."
Vincent's face went pale.
"No..."
Isabella nodded.
"The DeLucas..."
"The Morettis..."
"The Castellanos..."
"They were all branches."
"But you two..."
"...carry the original blood."
The room fell into stunned silence.
Emily slowly stepped away from Vincent.
Every memory.
Every feeling.
Every promise they had made to each other...
Collapsed in an instant.
Vincent felt his chest tighten.
He had crossed oceans to protect her.
He had nearly destroyed his empire for her.
Now fate itself seemed determined to tear them apart.
Then...
A soft laugh echoed from the shadows.
Everyone turned.
Marco emerged slowly, applauding.
"You finally figured it out."
He wasn't alone.
More than fifty armed soldiers surrounded the laboratory.
Marco smiled.
"But there's one final secret..."
He tossed a sealed DNA report onto the floor.
Vincent picked it up.
His eyes widened.
His breathing stopped.
The report was dated...
Yesterday.
Across the bottom, in bold black letters, it read:
Previous Phoenix DNA records were intentionally falsified.
Marco laughed.
"You've all been chasing lies."
"Want to know the truth?"
He slowly raised a detonator.
"First..."
"...let's bury the evidence forever."
His thumb pressed the button.
Deep beneath the laboratory...
The countdown began.
May you like
00:59... 00:58... 00:57...
To Be Continued...
